South of the Border

Over South of the Border is a 2006 release, about a North Korean man and his family fleeing to South Korea, the upheaval it causes in their lives, and their eventual integration to the new modern society. Kim Seon-ho (played by Cha Seung-won) was a horn player in the orchestra, and he was happily engaged to Young-hwa (Jo Yi-jin). But little did anyone know that his grandfather, a once honored hero, had fled to the south, and this threatened the remaining family, as this made them look like sympathisers in the eyes of the Communist party. Kim Seon-ho asks Young-hwa to come with him, but she has to stay behind, as she could not leave her ailing parents. So he promises to make arrangements for her and her parents when he establishes himself in Seoul. The trip across is long and dangerous, but they make it across. In Seoul they discover that life is very different; a city of lights and movement; of women dressed provocatively in ads, and televsion showing all different kinds of things. Seon-ho tries out many different jobs, all menial, scraping together enough money for his fiancee. He meets a man who promises to grease the right palms, but after giving him the money, he later finds out that he is a con man out to take advantage of people like him. Furious, he confronts him in a restaurant, and starts a fight. He is beaten soundly. He staggers back to a restaurant where he had been working, and the woman owner takes care of him, and a relationship between the two develops. They end up living together, and start up a new restaurant, which emphasizes a more North Korean cuisine. One day he is watching the tv and sees that a huge number of refugees have crossed into South Korea, and through a connection, finds out that one of them is his fiancee. He secretly goes to see her, and they are reunited, however, he fails to tell her of his new situation. They have a brief but blissful fling, but Young-hwa realizes that things have changed, and while claiming to go out to get groceries, leaves him for good. Seon-ho ends up back with the other woman, marries and has a child. At the end of the film while taking the family to a photo shoot, he discovers that Young-hwa has indeed moved on and started to build a new life for herself.

What is interesting about this film is at times it feels like a documentary, that you are watching a unique ascpect of Korean culture -- that of the immigrants from the north. From the living quarters to the jobs, the film does a good job of capturing the hard life that they endure, but also the benefits of being in an affluent society. Cha Seung-won does a good job of portaying a man deeply in love and also feeling somewhat overwhelmed by his new environment. Jo Yi-jin provides a much needed visual and character relief; however, the soap opera aspect of the latter half of the film, where she joins him in South Korea, is trite and not very well resolved. A worthy rental, check it out!

More reviews coming......

With the Thanksgiving holidays, an incredible amount of office work, and having a wonderful woman come into my life, it has been very hard to post reviews as of late, much less watch. But there are some coming -- I just placed an order for this incredible Mikio Naruse box set, from the Masters of Cinema series from the UK (PAL only, of course!). Criterion will reissue another Naruse film, A Woman Ascends the Stairs, practically impossible to find on VHS nowadays. Also, Criterion is reissuing Yojimbo and Sanjuro - again, yes, but the original sources used were worse than the VHS copies, and now they have gone back and have upgraded from fine source prints. More to come!

Sketches of Frank Gehry

The first documentary by Sydney Pollack, Sketches of Frank Gehry is a remarkable look at a controversial and innovative artist who uses architecture as a means for creative expression. Pollack, a good friend of Gehry's, effectively portrays Gehry as a man who is hard driven yet humble and honest about his work, willing to take enormous risks in a field where it is frowned upon. Gehry uses his drawings, loose line sketches that at first glance looks like a Jackson Pollock drip painting, to get a feel or an impression of a project, and then it is used to build models, which are his primary medium to create the structure. He creates several models of various sizes, in order to get a sense of scale as well as not becoming wedded to a design that only works on a particular scale. He is assisted by a couple of designers who are essentially his right hand men, executing design tasks and shaping the models, responding to Gehry's creative impulses. His architecture office is a creative workshop where people design, build and rework various projects. There are interviews with known people in architecture and art -- Philip Johnson, Ed Ruscha, Hal Foster (a major art critic providing the lone dissenting voice, showing his own limitations with regards to the arts), actor Dennis Hopper, Michael Ovtiz, Michael Eisner, Bob Geldolf, and others. What is he most known for? In the 70's and 80's he did a lot of work on private homes, especially his own, which was typecast as part of the Deconstructivist aesthetic of the time. Deconstruction, in the crudest of definitions, is a breaking down a structure, language, sign or object in order to create something new. Gehry's innovative use of materials and taking things like chain link fences and using them in a different way, pushing them up in the sky at angles, redefined the common acceptance of the role of materials and how a structure should be. His most famous work, a project done for the Guggenheim Museum, is the Bilbao museum in Spain, completed in the late 90's. The curved surfaces soar out of the industrial skyline, and reflect the sun light like a jewel. It was seen as a masterpiece of building when it was completed, and for the past decade there has been a trend where cities are looking to commission architectural centerpieces to revive or boost their local economies, like the museum has done for Bilbao. A more recent work has been the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Pollack does a good job of running down the list of Gehry's architectural highlights, but most importantly, he gives a clear view of one man's creative thinking process, and the high levels of craft, design and work that is put into each work. While not recommended for the casual viewer, this is a revealing look at one of the top creative minds of our time. I liked it a lot!

A Sumptuous yet Unsatisfying Banquet

The Banquet is this year's epic film release from China. Like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and The Promise, it is filled with gorgeous visuals, slow motion action sequences, and a stellar cast, headed by Zhang Ziyi as the Empress Wan, and Daniel Wu as Crown Prince Wu Luan, whose father was assassinated by his uncle Li (Ge You) before the movie begins. The story has a Shakespearian feel, and that is because it is strongly influenced by but not an adaptation of Hamlet. The common thread in both is the revenge of the son on the new ruler, but the bloodlines have been made more complicated in The Banquet by making Wan a childhood friend and potential lover to Wu Luan, who was forced to marry his father, and is now the object of Emperor Li's desires. Li has established his rule, but Wan, in trying to reach Wu Luan (in seclusion, pursuing an artistic life as a performer), made his whereabouts known, and Li sends a band of assassins to kill him. They fail. Wu Luan does return to the palace, to see his uncle, but also to see his love, Quing Nu (Zhou Xun), who was to be betrothed to him, but because of the new regime, is being asked by her father to abandon her love, for the family's sake. Wan becomes Li's lover and Empress, bowing down to him in a tense court scene where one of Li's generals makes the fatal mistake of acknowledging Wan as Li's superior in the line of rule. The general is beaten to death in a public display. Wan, who still loves Wu Luan, meets with him privately, but Wu Luan is disgusted by the corruption and lust for power that has overcome her; she is no longer his little Wan, and she acknowledges that she has trouble remembering her real name. During the ceremony where Wan becomes Empress and Li's consort, Wu Luan is asked to do a performance showcasing his swordsmanship. The display becomes something more when one of the guards switches the wooden sword for a real one, and tries to kill Wu Luan. But Wan prevents this from happening, and the assassination attempt is thwarted. Wu Luan is sent to a neighboring country to be an ambassador, but it is a set up to have him killed in the snowy northern region. They are thwarted again, this time by Quing Nu's brother and his men. Li decides to hold a banquet, "inviting" the lords and ladies of the country to attend, or be killed as traitors. Wan has decided to plot against her lord by drugging his cup with poison, but before he drinks from it, a surprise request is made by Quing Nu, who publicly declares her love for Wu Luan in a song and dance. Li is moved by her performance, and gives her the cup to drink. She does, and dies. One of the dancers performing with her removes his mask, and reveals himself to be Wu Luan. Li is stunned by this betrayed by the woman he loves, and kills himself before Wu Luan could storm past the guards to slay him. Wan, triumphant, wants to declare Wu Luan the new Emperor, but he is horrified by the title, and resists. Quing Nu's brother attempts to kill Wan, but Wu Luan stops him by grabbing the sword by the blade, and Wan kills him. The blade is poisoned, and to Wan's horror Wu Luan dies. Wan is left both miserable and elated at being ruler of all China, yet she is killed herself by an unknown assassin.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film, having seen the previews and online press releases. However, having watched it, I see it as another big budget epic that falls short of its expectations. Of all the films I have mentioned earlier, I think Hero is the only one which has grown better upon repeated viewing . One problem is the choice of actors. I think Daniel Wu is miscast, because I don't think he can convey effectively the range of emotions needed in this role -- he's too much a "pretty face," like Tom Cruise. Zhang Ziyi, a very fine actress, seems a bit handicapped with her role, which was required to be a facade for her character's true intents for most of the film. She ends up being a visual object, a feast for the eyes like most everything in the film, and only in the last scene of the movie do you feel she can "breathe." And perhaps that is the object of the film, to be a highly mannered movie where everyone is confined by power politics and rituals of the Imperial court. But it is too restrained. The stunning and rich visuals overwhelm by their opulence. The color schemes and lighting are worked very hard to focus on the essentials, but it still distracts and at times competes with the actors. Most of all, I think the direction is mediocre. The action sequences are too composed, the courtroom drama feels very distant, the juxtaposition of several scenes are awkward - Wan's bedroom scene with Li while cutting back to Wu Luan's scene with his father's empty armor, for instance. The movie is very rigid, suffocating its actors, the scenes and preventing the viewer from being emotionally involved in the film. Asian film buffs will certainly want to see it, but better films have been made -- check out any of King Hu's films from the 60's and 70's, for example. For the casual viewer, this two hour epic will make you tired and restless.

School's Out for Everyone Involved - Mr Wacky

Mr Wacky is a cut and paste comedy that has no direction, poor acting, and a story that meanders from cheap laughs to mild melodrama. Park Geon-hyeong plays Ju-Ho, a young playboy who spends every living moment chasing women and driving fast cars. While on a visit to the hospital to see his grandfather (who has had an operation for hemorrhoids), Ju-Ho gets a piece of bad news -- his grandfather wants him to fulfill his mother's wish for him to be a teacher. The grandfather has cut all funds, even out of his will, so the only way Ju-Ho can get back into the lifestyle he is accustomed to is to teach for two years. Reluctantly, he does, but instead of being a teacher's assistant, he is handed responsibility for an entire class without any help. Ju-Ho has no idea how to go about this -- so he shirks his duties, phones in his assignments to the class president who then relays the message, or lets the class have it's way while he kills time until the time is up. He is content to coast along like this, but is thwarted by another teacher, So-Yu Un, who keeps everyone in line, and pushes Ju-Ho to actually do some teaching. So-Yu lives a lonely bachelorette existence, and it become clear that she will be the love interest, though the only thing they have in common is a bad attitude. They get together, fall for each other, then So-Yu disappears from the rest of the film. Ju-Ho deals with the various school cliques, helps out one young girl, and eventually leaves the school. The end of the film leaves him teaching a grade school class, with a more professional attitude.

I can tolerate mediocre films, especially the hack comedies, but by any standards this is a piece of garbage, with nothing to recommend. Tedious and boring, devoid of imagination. Avoid at all costs.

Election 2

On the heels of Election (released in 2005), Johnny To has directed another terrific crime movie, Election 2. In fact, comparisons can be made to Coppola's Godfather films, or even Scorsese's recent film, the Departed (which was itself a remake of a Hong Kong crime trilogy, Infernal Affairs). The story, directing and acting are all top notch, and this has to be considered one of the top movies of the year, from any country. It's that good. Veteran actor Simon Yam plays Lok, the head of the Hong Kong triad syndicate, comprised of elderly board members who elect a new leader every two years. The first film dealt with Lok's rise to power, competing against rival factions to grab the top spot, which brings great power and prestige. But once elected, one can not be reelected. In Election 2, it is at the end of Lok's two year term, and Lok wants to do the unthinkable and run again. He has support from some of the board members, but others want to support a new comer, top businessman and illegal dvd copier and porn distributor Jimmy (played by Louis Koo). Jimmy wants no part in this ploy; however, after being busted in a deal at a restaurant, he discovers that in order to do business in China he must run for Chairman of the triads, and he reluctantly does so. During the course of the film we see Jimmy embrace the life he so much abhorrs, in the process becoming more brutal and violent than his rival, Lok. The scenes of Jimmy and his henchmen torturing one of Lok's supporters, then dispatching him is harrowing and disturbing. Even his own men are shocked by his callousness. But it does the job, he secures support of Lok's followers and his henchmen, and at the end of the film, Lok is killed, while Jimmy achieves his dreams of having business connections with the mainland, having a house on top of a hill, and marrying his sweetheart. Until at the end of the film, he discovers that it all has a price, and that is he must maintain leadership of the triad for many years to come; which means he has to break tradition and be reelected.

Apparently Election 2 was banned in China for its content, and I'm not talking about the bloody violence of this film. This is an indictment of China's assimilation of Hong Kong, by portraying Chinese officials as ruthless, coldblooded men who work with Jimmy to influence and control the long standing and venerable triad society in Hong Kong. Not that anyone is truly good in this film, but it is a unique and imaginative look at the inevitable assimilation of Hong Kong into China, using the factions as symbols for territory and the country. Simon Yam is good as always, but Louis Koo gives a command performance as Jimmy, a man who just wants to make a lot of money, but not get his hands dirty by being involved with the triads. His cold blooded anger at being forced to play the election game makes him into one of the most evil crime lords ever to grace the movie screen. And Johnny To, the one director remaining from the glory days of Hong Kong's film industry in the 80's and early 90's, is outstanding. Watch this film and compare it to Scorsese's the Departed -- they are eerily similar in visuals and cuts. But where Scorsese is revisiting the successes of his past films, To is building upon a remarkable filmography. Everything is shot just right, there are no wasted moments. The pacing, while slower than the first film, builds up to a satisfying climax, with a twist at the end that makes all involved pawns of a larger game. This gets my highest recommendation; one of the best films of 2006.

Red Angel update

Well finally, Masumura's Red Angel is available on dvd. I had mentioned the movie in a previous blog in September, and after some delay, it is here. This is a powerful war movie for the early to mid 60's, reminiscent of the American war films about Vietnam in the 80's. Ayako Wakao plays Nishi, a pretty nurse who is sent to China to work in the military hospitals. Japan had invaded Manchuria, and was looking to drive a deep wedge into the country, but had foolishly overestimated their power and underestimated the massive size of land and people. The Japanese attack was stretched thin and were being cut off from supply routes, and casualties were mounting. Behind the front lines, the injured and the dead were piling up in the maske shift hospitals. Nishi, during her first week at the hospital as a nurse, is raped by a patient. She reports him, and as punishment he is sent off to the front lines, where he is mortally wounded in combat. Nishi is sent to work with Dr. Akabe, who is literally knee deep with casualties, and for days straight they work tirelessly to tend to the wounded. They grow close, and Nishi falls in love with Akabe. She goes back to her first workplace, where she maintains her connection to Akabe by tending to an injured soldier who has lost both his arms. She revives him not only as a nurse, but also as a woman. However, giving him this treatment makes the soldier aware of his handicapped status, and he kills himself by jumping off of the roof. Nishi is devastated, but is told by the head nurse not to get so personal with the patients -- it's the only way the nurses can survive the war, by not thinking of them as men but soldiers. She goes back to work with Dr Akabe, and for three days straight they all tend to the hundreds of soldiers that come piling back from the front lines; massive casualties are incurred. In an unforgettable scene, nurses and doctors hack away at useless limbs, soldiers die before and during operation, and when things grow calm, they brush and mop up the pools of blood from the floor. It is a terrible situation. Dr. Akabe is assigned to the front lines, to help a doctor who is overwhelmed by the injured. Nishi volunteers to help, and they and a young recruited nurse join them. They never reach the front lines, but the rear guard, as they discover that they all have been cut off from the supply line, surrounded by the Chinese. They are planning a massive attack on the line, and everyone is planning for the worst. There is also an outbreak of cholera in the camp, first from the comfort women, then from the soldiers. Dr Akabe and Nishi declare their love for each other the night before the attack. At dawn, the Chinese attack, and everyone is wiped out, except for Nishi, who somehow survives by being buried under rubble. A group of Japanese soldiers arrive, having thwarted the attack, but Nishi is left disconsolate as he discovers Dr. Akabe's body in the field.

This is a well done film about the casualties of war, and a woman who because of her sex and her job is as much a victim of war as the soldiers who are being brutalized on the front. The black and white imagery is used to its fullest, taking advantage of the many night scenes, and the final battle which takes place at dawn. Ayako Wakao gives a fine performance. It is a Japanese film that looks at war the same way the US did about Vietnam much later. The documentary feel of the hospital scenes still shock, but are not as graphic as it could be, because of the lack of color. A well told story. Highly recommended.

Ken aka The Sword

Ken is a 60's film starring Ichikawa Raizo, and directed by Misumi Kenji, both known for their work in period samurai films. Here the setting is more contemporary; 60's Japan. Based on a novel by Mishima Yukio, Ichikawa plays the main character, Kokubu Jiro, a star pupil of a univerity Kendo club, who is known for his single-minded devotion to the sport. Neither games, drinking, girl chasing, or television interest him, as it does his friends and classmates. Kokubu has a rival in the club, Kagawa, the second best in the club, who is constantly trying to better him, but is never able to. The club is about to enter a major tournament, and Kokobu is given charge of training the group. They go to a seaside resort, described as a "rustic village," but scenic and a perfect place to train the young men. Kokubu puts them through a gruelling two week training, where they work so hard that they can't eat. The point is to bring them up to a high physical level, and mentally to that transcendent state that will enable them to win. However, Kagawa is harboring resentment towards his classmate, and has tried several ways to bring him down. For instance, he tries to seduce him with a university female student; it fails, and she falls in love with him, though it is not reciprocated. Finally, on the second to last day of training, while Kokubu and several others go to the docks to await the arrival of their master, Kagawa convinces the others to go for a swim, something that was forbidden for them to do. The master and the others come back as they are returning from the swim. The master is furious; Kokubu horrified. Kagawa is expelled from the training, but not from the group, and is allowed to return for the competition. But Kokubu has lost his control over the class, and this apparent lack of leadership causes him to commit suicide. The movie ends with the class mourning over the loss.

This is a simple story, beautifully shot, with excellent direction by Mitsumi, focusing on the school and the process of training, giving it a documentary feeling. The melodrama is provided by Kagawa and Kokubu's potential love interest, showing the conflict between dedication to one's craft versus indulging in the pleasures of everyday life. Ichikawa Raizo acts with restraint and nobility, and I think this is one of his finest roles. Recommended!